Father of Dead Baby Discovered in Hallandale Backyard Takes Plea Deal

The father of a dead baby whose remains were discovered in the backyard of a Hallandale Beach home in 2013 has agreed to take a plea deal. Calvin Melvin, 29, has been charged with two counts of child neglect and three counts of giving false information to law enforcement officials.

But the child neglect charges were dropped after Melvin pleaded guilty to the three counts of giving false statements, and his sentencing will commence on September 18.

The remains of the child, who had been missing since July 2011, when he was 5 months old, were found in the backyard of Melvin's and the child's mother's Hallandale Beach home.

As New Times reported in 2013, the boy, Dontrell Melvin, had never been reported missing, and his disappearance wasn't discovered until a routine check by a child welfare investigator in January of that year.

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According to Hallandale Beach Chief of Police Dwayne Fluornoy, Melvin and the child's mother, Brittney Sierra, initially blamed each other for the child's disappearance and accused each other of harming the child in some way.

When an investigator asked Melvin where the child was, he told them he had taken the boy to live with his grandparents in Pompano Beach. When investigators interviewed the grandparents, they told authorities they had no idea what the investigator was talking about.

Upon returning to Hallandale Beach to question Melvin further, the investigator couldn't find him anywhere. When he was found a day later, Melvin's story had changed. He told investigators he had dropped off his son at a Miami Gardens fire station as part of the Safe Haven program. But according to authorities, Melvin eventually changed that story too.

Sierra gave cops a similar story, telling them that she had left the baby with her parents, who don't live in Florida. But police don't buy her story either.

Days after the baby was discovered, investigators positively identified the remains as Dontrell.